83 2.3L Timing Belt. HELP!!!

Lee_533 · Dec 20, 2012

Hey guys, I am trying to change the timing belt on my 83 2.3L ranger. The old one snapped. I have everything taken off and already replaced the tensioner, but now what? I can't find a tutorial anywhere about lining the engine up to put the belt on. I spun the cam pulley to make sure it's still spinning freely and it is. The pulley has a mark on it and my timing cover (plastic front and back) has a spot to line it up. It takes 4 turns of the cam pulley 4 turns for the lines to match again. So when the lines match up, does that mean that the engine is at TDC? Also, is there anything else I need to line up before installing the belt? The timing belt goes from my cam pulley to I believe the water pump or oil pump (not sure but when I rotated it, it sounds like its pumping some type of fluid). Does the harmonic balancer need to be lined up at all? And what about the crank pulley. Please help, my truck is my daily driver.

EMB1230 · Dec 20, 2012

the bottom pulley, that looks like the cam pulley is indeed the oil pump, you don't have to line that one up.

kunar · Dec 20, 2012

assuming your engine still has all of the plastic covers (and they are all the same as my 2.3's were) start by putting the crank at the T/C notch on the cover (you probably have that cover off, put it back on temporarily) the mark on the cam pulley needs to line up with the middle of the 3 marks on the other plastic cover. the 3rd pulley is your auxiliary shaft, it runs your distributor and your oil pump. pull your distributor cap and spin the aux pulley until the rotor lines up with #1 on your distributor cap. now all 3 should be where they need to be, put your belt on and tighten your tensioner. to double check your cam pulley, use your dipstick and lay it across the center of your cam pulley bolt and your aux pulley bolt. the notch on your cam pulley should fall on this line, and im pretty sure the notch on your aux pulley will as well. if the aux pulley doesnt line up though, its not too important as long as you have the distributor close. youll have to set the ignition timing with a light after youre done anyways.

Lee_533 · Dec 20, 2012

kunar said:
assuming your engine still has all of the plastic covers (and they are all the same as my 2.3's were) start by putting the crank at the T/C notch on the cover (you probably have that cover off, put it back on temporarily) the mark on the cam pulley needs to line up with the middle of the 3 marks on the other plastic cover. the 3rd pulley is your auxiliary shaft, it runs your distributor and your oil pump. pull your distributor cap and spin the aux pulley until the rotor lines up with #1 on your distributor cap. now all 3 should be where they need to be, put your belt on and tighten your tensioner. to double check your cam pulley, use your dipstick and lay it across the center of your cam pulley bolt and your aux pulley bolt. the notch on your cam pulley should fall on this line, and im pretty sure the notch on your aux pulley will as well. if the aux pulley doesnt line up though, its not too important as long as you have the distributor close. youll have to set the ignition timing with a light after youre done anyways.

Awesome...that's exactly what I needed. One more thing...when the marks on the cam and crank pulley are lined up with the marks on the covers, does that mean it's at TDC? Or do I need to look inside the #1 spark plug to make sure the engine in on compression stroke? Trying to cover all my bases so I don't screw anything up.

kunar · Dec 20, 2012

Lee_533 said:
Awesome...that's exactly what I needed. One more thing...when the marks on the cam and crank pulley are lined up with the marks on the covers, does that mean it's at TDC? Or do I need to look inside the #1 spark plug to make sure the engine in on compression stroke? Trying to cover all my bases so I don't screw anything up.

when the mark on the crank is lined up with the T/C mark, the #1 cyl is at top dead center. you dont need to pull the plug but it certainly wouldnt hurt to double check you're actually doing what you think you are. when you set the cam mark to where it needs to be, that's making it the compression stroke.

btw, i know that my explanation looks like a ramble, but if youre looking at the front end of your engine it should all make perfect sense.

i should also add that once you get your belt on, use a ratchet and spin your crank over 2 full turns, all the marks should still line up. double check before you put everything back together :icon_thumby:

Lee_533 · Dec 20, 2012

Thank you...it wasn't ramble, I understood it perfectly. It just that this is my first timing belt change on a Ranger and I didn't really know how to go about it. Thanks for all the help, I'll let you know how it goes.

Lee_533 · Dec 20, 2012

another question. How the hell does then timing belt cover go back on? I don't understand how I got it off an it's definitely not going back on easy

kunar · Dec 20, 2012

Lee_533 said:
another question. How the hell does then timing belt cover go back on? I don't understand how I got it off an it's definitely not going back on easy

ugh, they are a major pain. pretty sure it was designed to only be removed after the harmonic balancer is removed. other than that, i dont really remember. mine was in bad enough shape that i completely removed the inner cover and i cut the outer cover just above the bottom two bolt holes. basically all that is left is the degree scale at the bottom.

PetesPonies · Dec 20, 2012

Do you not have a repair manual? Seems that would be very helpful to you.

Lee_533 · Dec 20, 2012

PetesPonies said:
Do you not have a repair manual? Seems that would be very helpful to you.

I do have a repair manual, but it was bought when the truck was lol. I got the cover on and off now. But here comes another pain that I can't figure out. The harmonic balancer...how do you get the bolt to loosen when the damn thing just spins? I've read the post of using the breaker bar and strapping it to the frame while cranking the truck over, but that just seems all bad. Not to mention you still gotta torque it back to specs. Is there a tool I can buy to get this thing off? Everything is lined up, but the balancer has to come off to get the belt on.

PetesPonies · Dec 20, 2012

The easiest way to remove a bolt in the crank is with an impact wrench. It comes right off. But if you must remove it manually, you will have to block the engine from spinning. There are a number of ways to do this, depending on the type engine and how much is disassembled. What trans do you have?

alwaysFlOoReD · Dec 20, 2012

If it was my motor I would run a bunch of rope into the cylinder thru the sparkplug hole. Then slowly undo the bolt on the crank. There are probably better ways of doing it but that's my off the cuff answer.
Good luck,

Richard

Lee_533 · Dec 20, 2012

PetesPonies said:
The easiest way to remove a bolt in the crank is with an impact wrench. It comes right off. But if you must remove it manually, you will have to block the engine from spinning. There are a number of ways to do this, depending on the type engine and how much is disassembled. What trans do you have?

4 speed manual

alwaysFlOoReD · Dec 20, 2012

^^^That's a better answer.

Lee_533 · Dec 21, 2012

If I put it in gear will it block the engine from turning? I feel like and idiot because I've rebuilt an engine before and have torn into this one pretty far, just never touched the timing belt. I have an impact gun, I'll give that a shot if I can get it in there

83 2.3L Timing Belt. HELP!!!

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